Living in shed - good idea or plain crazy?

pubpub

Ok so bizzare title. I'm a newbie here just received planning, waiting for grant.

Original idea was to get mobile home on site when we got esb connected as we simply will not be able to rent and draw down mortgage.

We will be building a big insulated serviced shed which we will get started asap - we always said we wanted the shed completed as soon as possible, my da has come up with the idea of living in it insted of getting mobile.

Seemed crazy at first but the more we think of it, it could be a runner. We could partitioned into a couple of rooms. Install cheap shower, toilet (which we were going to have anyway) maybe second hand oil boiler/stove. Give ourselves a small budget of what we would have spent on a mobile (I know with a mobile we could have resold it on and recouped some of the money spent).

Has anyone done this or is it crazy?

smashey

There might be issues with your local council regarding "change of use" from an industrial type shed to a habitable building.

jamesd

I know of 3 different people whom did this while building - dont know if they told the council though.

muffler

Same as that. I know 1 person who has just moved from the garage into the new house and another couple are just starting work on their garage.

Not a bad idea at all. Just be careful as smashey said regarding the potential change of use. Cant really see it as a problem unless someone reports it to the council.

And we don't condone the flaunting of planning regs on this forum

galwayrush

Did it, still in shed after 7 years, but we saved a fortune in rent, and did most of the housebuilding out of our earnings.No problems with the council, even after we changed house plans, they only mentioned that it was an unauthorised dwelling and that we weren't to rent it out after we move into the house, but could keep it as it is for "the incindental enjoyment of the household"

muffler

Well, when the wife throws you out of the house for walking on the carpet with the wellies still on where else are you supposed to go

mukki

pubpub wrote:

we always said we wanted the shed completed as soon as possible, my da has come up with the idea of living in it insted of getting mobile.

guess he doesn't want you moving back home anytime soon


think its a great idea op, them trailers are cold and dangerous, saw one on its roof after a storm in march

Builderwoman!

Why not build a two storey garage first and service it with small kitchen and wc and shower and have a large kitchen/diner/living space downstairs and a couple of beds upstairs? Then you'd always have it for incidental use as other poster says. If you have exisiting garage on your plans modify it with council's permission. They may only stipulate that you cannot rent out in the future which is fair enough. I saw a couple on TV living in large green insulated shed and it looked great. They had very little daylight though! You could cost out the shed and building a garage option. You will need either after you build anyway so either way you're not wasting your money. I think either option would be better than a mobile and mobiles aren't cheap anyway and are tiny...plus you have to get rid of them at the end at least you'll have the shed forever.

pubpub

mukki wrote:

guess he doesn't want you moving back home anytime soon


think its a great idea op, them trailers are cold and dangerous, saw one on its roof after a storm in march

Ha thats exactly his reasoning behind it - he even offered to build it for us:)

Thanks guys for comments it looks like it's a runner. Can't see us spending too much money on doing it up as we will need it as a garage/workshed when our house is built.